Guwahati: Grasses account for more than 81% of the food consumed by Asian elephants in tea gardens and adjoining landscapes of Assam’s Udalguri district, with researchers recording 84 grass-feeding events among 103 observations during a field study.

The findings, published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa, highlight the ecological importance of grass-rich habitats within tea estates and underline the challenges of managing human-elephant interactions in a landscape increasingly shaped by plantations, agriculture and fragmented forests.

The study, titled Feeding Habits of Asian Elephants in Tea Gardens of Assam, India, examined the daytime feeding behaviour of elephants in Udalguri, a high-conflict district in the Bodoland Territorial Region that forms part of a transboundary landscape connecting Assam with Bhutan.

Researchers documented 103 feeding events between August and November 2024. Of these, 81.6% involved grasses, while feeding on trees accounted for 9.7% and herbs for 8.7%.

The elephants were observed feeding on a variety of plant species, including Albizia lebbeck, Neolamarckia cadamba, Cynodon dactylon, Chrysopogon aciculatus and Setaria species. Other food plants identified during field observations included Bombax ceiba, Ziziphus mauritiana, Coccinia grandis and Desmodium triflorum.

The findings suggest that tea-estate landscapes, particularly their grassy margins, provide important feeding opportunities for elephants during the monsoon and post-monsoon months, when fresh grasses are abundant.

Richard Sangma of the Wildlife Institute of India, the study’s lead author, said the findings add a new dimension to the understanding of how elephants use tea-estate landscapes.

“This is not the first study on elephants in tea estates. Several earlier studies have described tea estates mainly as daytime refuges and movement corridors for elephants. Our observations suggest that tea estates are not just a place to take shelter. They also provide palatable food plants, which elephants actively feed on,” he said.

However, Sangma cautioned against interpreting the findings as a comprehensive account of elephant diets.

“I want to clarify that this was an observational study, limited to daytime feeding within tea estates over a few months. It does not represent elephants’ complete dietary patterns across seasons or in other habitats, such as forests and croplands,” he said.

Habitat fragmentation a growing concern

The study also draws attention to the wider transformation of Udalguri’s landscape and its implications for elephant movement and feeding behaviour.

The district comprises tea estates, agricultural land, riverine grasslands, settlements and fragmented forest patches. Researchers noted that forest conversion, plantation expansion and agricultural encroachment have altered habitat quality and restricted elephant movement.

With natural habitats becoming increasingly fragmented, elephants are using grass-rich edges, fallow lands and riverine areas for feeding. While these modified landscapes offer accessible food, they can also bring elephants closer to villages and cultivated fields, increasing the likelihood of crop damage, property loss and encounters with people.

The paper cites long-term records from the Dhansiri Forest Division documenting 221 human casualties, including 144 fatalities, and 96 elephant deaths between 2011 and 2024, highlighting the scale of human-elephant conflict in the wider landscape.

The researchers, however, emphasised that the feeding study did not directly assess crop-raiding behaviour. Since observations were restricted to daytime encounters, nocturnal feeding in agricultural fields could not be systematically examined.

Conservation implications

The researchers said maintaining grass-rich corridors and riverine habitats, restoring degraded landscapes and protecting elephant movement routes would be important for reducing conflict while supporting conservation.

They also called for coordinated planning involving forest authorities, tea estates and communities living alongside elephant habitats. Greater awareness among tea-estate workers and residents, combined with early-warning systems to anticipate elephant movements, could strengthen coexistence efforts.

The study was conducted by researchers affiliated with the Wildlife Institute of India, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research.

It was funded by the Project Tiger and Elephant Division of the Union Environment Ministry under a project focusing on integrated conservation and management strategies for the Chirang-Ripu Elephant Reserve.

The researchers said further studies incorporating night-time monitoring would provide a more comprehensive understanding of elephant feeding patterns across tea estates, forests and agricultural landscapes.

The findings underline an important conservation challenge for Assam–as elephants adapt to landscapes increasingly modified by human activity, safeguarding their feeding habitats and movement corridors will be crucial to reducing human-elephant conflict.